Elisabeth Kühling, Co-foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame
Born in Münster, January 10, 1822, Elisabeth was the daughter of Ferdinand
and Elisabeth (Henkhues) Kühling. After her elementary education at
Saint Lambert Parish in Münster, she entered the high school for girls
on the Cathedral Square. At age 16, Elisabeth was admitted to the Royal Teaching
Training Seminar for Women and passed the teachers examination in 1840 with
highest honors. She then began her teaching career in the girls school at
Saint Lambert Parish, Coesfeld. Eight years later, Hilligonde
Wolbring came
there as a beginning teacher. The two young women became friends and started
their work for poor children. On October 1, 1850, Elisabeth accepted the
religious habit of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Amersfoort and became known
by the name Sister Maria Ignatia.
Until she fell ill during the 1857 typhus outbreak in the Coesfeld motherhouse,
Sister Maria Ignatia taught the older class of girls in Saint Lambert School
and the basic course in pedagogy in the congregation’s own teacher
training school. When she recovered in 1858, Sister Maria Ignatia became
directress of novices in addition to her work as teacher educator. In her
ministry to the young women who were learning the way of life of the Sisters
of Notre Dame, she combined contemplation and service in her total devotion
to Jesus Christ and encouraged the novices to do the same.
Sister Maria Ignatia developed cancer and died at the age of 47 on November
8, 1869. In the 11 years of her work with novices, she prepared 117 young
women for their perpetual profession in the congregation. Her sisters remembered
her as one whose “eyes mirrored a boundless goodness and the serenity
of her soul, always united with God.”
